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Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

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Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

Pregnancy

Putting on weight to avoid stretch marks

63 replies

RubieWoo · 22/05/2015 19:12

Has anyone tried this? I'm thinking about doing this, I'm almost 10 weeks and I know for sure I;m going to get terrible stretch marks.

OP posts:

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applecore0317 · 22/05/2015 23:03

I am 39+2, haven't moisturised my stomach, was a size 6, have possibly put on over three stone in this pregnancy, mainly a massive bump and don't have one single stretch mark...

Some people get them, some don't

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CookPassBabtrigde · 22/05/2015 23:10

I don't think it would work OP.. I think stretch marks are one of those things that if you're prone to them will happen regardless of what you do.
I gained 1 stone during pregnancy and DS was over half of that. My belly felt tight and huge but I have no stretch marks. But then, none of the women in my family got them - I think it mainly depends on the type of skin you have which unfortunately you can do nothing about.

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CookPassBabtrigde · 22/05/2015 23:17

Oh and if it makes any difference a friend of mine used bio oil religiously and was still absolutely covered in stretch marks. They have faded now to a silvery colour and you honestly wouldn't notice them unless they were pointed out to you.

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DarylDixonsDarlin · 22/05/2015 23:28

I had more stretch marks on breasts and thighs, from growing during puberty, than I gained on my tum during 3 whole pregnancies. Its purely down to luck and a genetic disposition to either get them or not, rather than anything you will have any control over. Sorry

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Francescal88 · 22/05/2015 23:34

I started putting on weight when I was around 18 and went from 9 stone to 17.5 stone in 6 years. I obviously got stretch marks from putting on so much weight in so relatively little time but they've faded and are hardly noticeable now. Then I lost four stone in seven months, and fell pregnant a few months after that. I didn't get a single stretch mark during my pregnancy. I reckon because my skin had already stretched when I was super fat.

So you could always try that.

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Roseybee10 · 23/05/2015 05:28

I put on 4 stone with first pregnancy and got loads.
Put on 1.5 stone with second and got none.

If you start eating lots now it's going to be very hard to stop. You also can't 'spot gain' weight. You could gain 10lbs and some go on your bum, legs, boobs etc.

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D00dles · 23/05/2015 06:54

I'm a size 8-10. No stretch marks with my DD and currently 29 weeks with this one and none yet!

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sianihedgehog · 23/05/2015 12:53

I don't think it'll help, realistically. If you had gained and lost a shit load of weight before pregnancy so that you had great hanging sheets of extra skin maybe, but I don't think gaining weight deliberately in the first trimester will slow down the rate of stretching at the very end much at all. You'll be growing way bigger than you could get in the first trimester, and I think you'd really struggle to lose the fat you gained at the start, so you'd probably end up with even more stretching and even more stretch marks. A lot of women find that they aren't able to exercise as much as normal, especially later in pregnancy, so planning to stop your weight gain while still getting good nutrition is a plan doomed to fail.
If you've already got stretch marks from a growth spurt, you already know you're genetically susceptible, and you're really just going to have to embrace them, I suspect, because there is absolutely nothing that will prevent them.

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Steph1502 · 23/05/2015 14:50

If you're gonna get them you're gonna get them. I used all the creams money could buy during my first pregnancy and I'm covered in them. However, I do think the less weight you gain during pregnancy can actually limit the amount you get.

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Allstoppedup · 23/05/2015 14:59

Got through my entire pregnancy without them! Had a huge ginormous bump and am fairly skinny.

Two days after DS arrived, so did my stretchmarks...

Bleh.

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purplebiro · 23/05/2015 19:40

Even a small amount of gradual fat-based weight gain on the stomach will cause stretch marks if that's the way your skin responds to being stretched, sadly - I know this because when my dear mother asked me at about 20 weeks whether I had any stretch marks yet I had to shamefacedly tell her that I already had some before I was pregnant from a fun summer of booze and BBQs so it was hard to tell!! I have added to the collection in my third trimester without a shadow of a doubt but I would've been hard pressed to put that much weight on my stomach in advance anyway!!

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coneywonder · 25/05/2015 16:46

Oh godddd.

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fortunately · 25/05/2015 16:49

I didn't have a single stretch mark. Put on about 14kg total.

No idea why I didn't - just genetics.